![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2015\/02\/polish_human_centrifuge\/15260570-1-eng-GB\/Polish_human_centrifuge_small.jpg\")
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\nHow do you prepare for the unique experience of weightlessness on a parabolic aircraft flight? An ESA-led team took a ride on this human centrifuge at Poland\u2019s Military Institute of Aviation Medicine<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nThe quartet, including ESA mechatronics engineer Kjetil Wormnes, plan to test a deployable net for the capture of derelict satellites.\n<\/p>\n \nThe centrifuge training on 27\u201328 January prepared them for this week\u2019s flight on a Falcon 20 from the National Research Council of Canada.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe idea was to acclimatise us to the gravity shifting we\u2019ll experience, to help us anticipate and hopefully avoid any motion sickness,\u201d explains Kjetil.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThis is done to reduce the risk of any problems affecting the experiment. Compared to the Novespace Airbus A300 that ESA normally uses for its parabolic flights, this is a smaller aircraft with no room for extra helpers, so we want everyone to be fit to ensure everything runs smoothly. An indisposed crewmember could be catastrophic.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nOf course, a centrifuge is not the same as a zero-g flight. For example, zero acceleration is only along a single axis and the spin is an additional source of motion sickness.\n<\/p>\n \nThis Polish centrifuge is rare in that it has an active gondola which can rotate independently. This enables the creation of not only positive g-forces, but also negative (by tipping it upside down) or zero.\n<\/p>\n \nInside there is a full F16 cockipit and flight simulator for training pilots from all over Europe. But the test team experienced a simple programmed acceleration cycle simulating the full set of 25 aircraft parabolas.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe transitions between the different phases, and in particular from 0 to 2 g<\/i> was the worst part,\u201d Kjetil reports. \u201cThis was the time when the boogie flipped upside down while the centrifuge was still rotating.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe other bad time was just as the centrifuge braked to stop. For the rest, it was no problem, so long as I didn\u2019t move my head.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKjetil was joined by team members from Italy\u2019s STAM company and Poland\u2019s OptiNav and SKA Polska companies, working on a net design being considered for inclusion in ESA\u2019s eDeorbit mission, designed to capture and deorbit large items of space debris as part of the Agency\u2019s Clean Space<\/a> initiative.\n<\/p>\n \nSKA Polska arranged this week’s parabolic flight as part of their contract to develop and test the net design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \t\t\t\t\t \nHow do you prepare for the unique experience of weightlessness on a parabolic aircraft flight? An ESA-led team took a ride on this human centrifuge at Poland\u2019s Military Institute of Aviation Medicine<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nThe quartet, including ESA mechatronics engineer Kjetil Wormnes, plan to test a deployable net for the capture of derelict satellites.\n<\/p>\n \nThe centrifuge training on 27\u201328 January prepared them for this week\u2019s flight on a Falcon 20 from the National Research Council of Canada.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe idea was to acclimatise us to the gravity shifting we\u2019ll experience, to help us anticipate and hopefully avoid any motion sickness,\u201d explains Kjetil.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThis is done to reduce the risk of any problems affecting the experiment. Compared to the Novespace Airbus A300 that ESA normally uses for its parabolic flights, this is a smaller aircraft with no room for extra helpers, so we want everyone to be fit to ensure everything runs smoothly. An indisposed crewmember could be catastrophic.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nOf course, a centrifuge is not the same as a zero-g flight. For example, zero acceleration is only along a single axis and the spin is an additional source of motion sickness.\n<\/p>\n \nThis Polish centrifuge is rare in that it has an active gondola which can rotate independently. This enables the creation of not only positive g-forces, but also negative (by tipping it upside down) or zero.\n<\/p>\n \nInside there is a full F16 cockipit and flight simulator for training pilots from all over Europe. But the test team experienced a simple programmed acceleration cycle simulating the full set of 25 aircraft parabolas.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe transitions between the different phases, and in particular from 0 to 2 g<\/i> was the worst part,\u201d Kjetil reports. \u201cThis was the time when the boogie flipped upside down while the centrifuge was still rotating.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe other bad time was just as the centrifuge braked to stop. For the rest, it was no problem, so long as I didn\u2019t move my head.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKjetil was joined by team members from Italy\u2019s STAM company and Poland\u2019s OptiNav and SKA Polska companies, working on a net design being considered for inclusion in ESA\u2019s eDeorbit mission, designed to capture and deorbit large items of space debris as part of the Agency\u2019s Clean Space<\/a> initiative.\n<\/p>\n \nSKA Polska arranged this week’s parabolic flight as part of their contract to develop and test the net design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n